Python Edit/Rename Key Names in .json

Question

Is there a way to change the Key name? I need to change the name "Class123" like it is in the Example. I can change the Value but I don't know how to change the key name.

Example .json :

{
    "Class123": "classvalue", 
    "name1": {
        "name2": {
            "name3": {
                "Y": 158.8, 
                "X": 201.46
            }, 
            "name4": {
                "Y": 159.68, 
                "X": 200.32
            }
        }
    }
}

Starting like this:

with open('my.json') as json1:
    data = json.load(json1)
    for item in data:

Answer 1

There is no way to "change" a key name. The best you can do is to copy the value to another key by using pop :

d = {'old_name': 1}
d['new_name'] = d.pop('old_name')
print(d)
# {'new_name': 1}

Answer 2

I'd like to add my method here since it expands the singular naming to using a dict of keys.

Lets say you have a sample JSON list ga_list and you would like to change all the names with a dict key names_key :

names_key = { 'ga:date'            : 'date' ,
              'ga:bounceRate'      : 'bounce' ,
              'ga:newUsers'        : 'new_users', 
              'ga:pageviews'       : 'page_views',
              'ga:sessions'        : 'sessions',
              'ga:uniquePageviews' : 'unique_page_views',
              'ga:users'           : 'users'
              }

ga_list = [{
      'ga:bounceRate': 34.478408,
      'ga:date': '20151203',
      'ga:newUsers': 1679,
      'ga:pageviews': 550,
      'ga:sessions': 307,
      'ga:uniquePageviews': 467,
      'ga:users': 256},
    {'ga:bounceRate': 21.28534,
      'ga:date': '20151204',
      'ga:newUsers': 164,
      'ga:pageviews': 594,
      'ga:sessions': 305,
      'ga:uniquePageviews': 476,
      'ga:users': 252},
    {'ga:bounceRate': 13.8372346,
      'ga:date': '20151205',
      'ga:newUsers': 152,
      'ga:pageviews': 826,
      'ga:sessions': 330,
      'ga:uniquePageviews': 241,
      'ga:users': 200}]

for row in ga_list:
  for k, v in names_key.items():
    for old_name in row:
      if k == old_name:
        row[v] = row.pop(old_name)

print(ga_list)

>>>
[{'bounce': 34.47842608,
  'date': '20151203',
  'new_users': 1679,
  'page_views': 550,
  'sessions': 307,
  'unique_page_views': 467,
  'users': 256},
 {'bounce': 21.28534,
  'date': '20151204',
  'new_users': 164,
  'page_views': 594,
  ....
  'unique_page_views': 241,
  'users': 200}]

And there you have it all the old names are renamed according to the key.

Hope this helps someone.

Answer 3

Something like

your_dict[new_key] = your_dict.pop(old_key)

Removing the old key from your dict and creating a new one.

Answer 4

One way you can do it is with replace() function, but make sure that you have to convert your JSON Dict in to String first as Dictionary's key cannot be changed.

json_data = json_data.replace('key_old1','Key_new1').replace('key_old2','key_new2')

Hope this helps. Cheers..!!